tiistai 18. lokakuuta 2011

"Pathfinder knife" by Ilkka Seikku

a while ago I got to know Ilkka Seikku a finnish blacksmith / handcrafter and bowmaker. Ilkka has also been professional wilderness guide and instructor since year 2000, spezialised in traditional Finnish wilderness skills, survival skills and all kind of bushcraft skills.
My buddy Perkunas have recommended his products and I decided to order heavy jack-of-all-trades type knife from him. I got idea to my knife from Blind Horse knives made Pathfinder knife which was designed by American survival expert Dave Canterbury. I just loved that knife shape when I first saw it and I was very curious to try that kind of knifeshape which was not familiar to me at all.

So a couple of weeks later it finally arrived with custom leather sheath by another handyman Perkunas.

Knife

My first impression about knife was: wow, that´s really massive hunk of steel knifes spine being 7mm thick! Bevel grind was very long however so it would still slice well and was very balanced and lively on my hand. It have quite long handle lanyard hole in the end making different grips possible and lanyard will secure knife in chopping while gripping end of handle to maximize the force. Blade is around 15cm long carbon steel and tempered quite hard what I experienced later. Handle slabs are some exotic wood I don´t even know what they really are. All in all knife is maybe most rugged what I have ever had and I could imagine it being good candidate for do it all survival type knife where you have to abuse your tool in many ways being not scared of break it.

Sheath

Leather sheath is basic sandwich type having small utility pocket for small survival equipment, pocket knife, sharpening stone etc. It also have loop for army size firesteel (9,5mm diameter). Sheath is rugged no bullshit style well functioning and practical where knife sits well and is easy to unsheath. And on this knife I also remembered to wish sheath maker to make it mirrorlike for standard sheaths cause I´m left handed.

Tests

I tried knife immediately on my backyard when I got it and tried to do some chopping work. Thin edge bites deep on wood and long handle gives nice reach for knife size like this. I noticed immediately that lanyard is must on this type of handle cause it don´t really have leuku type end knob to stop handle slipping away. Next I tried to split some firewood cause that was one of the main function I have designed for that knife. So I batoned some dry birch wood for firewood and amazed how well that thick spined quite wide blade splits, almost like small hatchet.
After batoning I tried carving different projects and even it´s not really carving knife it´s doing it´s job quite ok on that area also. Ilkka´s knives were advertised being tough and hard edged tools so I tried to cut few water filled beer cans first horizontally..piece of cake and then vertically which was far more challenging. Knife survived from that also with almost clean papers. Few small dings on edge which I honed away in minutes. Normally I don´t do that kind of stuff to my knives, but cause this was intended for heavy general use I wanted to try it´s limits a bit.

Conclusion

All in all very good user for tough jobs more than worth of every your I have spent on it! Perfect companion for trips where you don´t want to carry axe with you and still need more capable tool than ordinary puukko.
More of ilkka´s works you can find here: www.tuluskivi.suntuubi.com